At the start of each month, I highlight the best performing posts throughout the previous month. I only include articles I actually posted throughout that month and they’re written in order. I don’t do this to brag, it is to highlight what posts work well and which possibly don’t for those prospective bloggers. Here are the most successful blog posts from the month of January 2022.
November was a month in which I tried to some slightly different articles. As I run out of a backlog of books on my Goodreads to review, I am writing more original content that I hope will help people. These include Blogger Spotlights which I hope will give other bloggers a great platform, How-tos and Tips and Tricks for other bloggers and Bookstagrammers and much more. Bring on December!
Please note that this article contains affiliate links. This means if you choose to purchase a product via the links, I’ll receive a small commission at no extra cost to you to support the blog. These affiliate links do not affect my final opinion of the products.
5. Book review of The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
The fifth most successful article from this month was my review of the famed book The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. The Alchemist has often featured on those lists that state “these books changed my life”. Therefore, I think this is likely why it has done so well this month – it’s a book a fair few people put down as one of their favourite of all time.
4. New Year’s Book Tag
To bring in the new year, I decided to find a New Year book tag which made me answering questions on what my reading goal for the new year was going to be. In this article, I answer what genre i’m going to read more of in 2022, how many books I planned to read, what personal goals I have and much more.
I have a feeling this post did quite well because I was giving away what my future ambitions were for 2022. Not only might this give some people some good reading ideas, but for those who have any sort of interest in me s a person, this may have given them a better dive into tat too.
3. Book review of The Appeal by Janice Hallett
The third most resd article of the month on my bog was my review of The Appeal by Janice Hallett. A lot of people were introigued by this book as it’s written in a very unique style – it uses the form of texts, emails, pamphletsa nd other dgital communication to get across the story. It does this very well whilst intertwining in a genuinely interesting murder mystery too.
As I said above, I believe the popularity of this article was likely due to its unique format and people wanting to know how well it works. There’s probably a mixture of this and the fact that it was a very popular book last year and so a lot of people might want to read if my opinions are similar to theirs.
2. Book review of The Sanatorium by Sarah Pearse
The Sanatorium is a book that’s on an upwards curve towards being a best seller. I follow Sarah Pearse on twitter and she’s been very busy lately visiting different Waterstones’ around the country, signing lots of copies of her book. The Sanatorium is about a woamn who goes to a remote hotel with her family and friends and there ends up being a killer which, being an ex detective, she naturally falls into trying to find.
As I said, I would attribute the popularity of this review to the popularity of the book itself. Though I only gave it a 4.5 stars in my final review, I know a lot of people absolutely loved this book. Considering it’s Sarah Pearse’s novel too, there’s. going to be a lot of expectation behind her next book, The Retreat, coming out later this year.
1. Book review of Girl A by Abigail Dean
Girl A by Abigail Dean is a book that was receiving a lot of hype around it when I picked it up and read it. It’s about a woman who survived a traumatic and abusive household as a child. It tells her story as an adult, going through the motions of life, whilst also relaying to us the events that led her household to become such a horrible place to be.
Despite the intriguing premise and almost The Family Upstairs vibe to it, I wasn’t impressed with Girl A. A really weak plot and some utterly forgettable characters unfortunately led me to givng it just three stars. However, I think due to the book’s popularity and a lot of people wanting to know my opinion on it, it received a lot of views.
So to summarise…
In a month that saw me read seven books, reviewing 6 of those and one other, it was a month that was heavily dominated by book reviews. This is always great to see as this is predominantly what I want my blog to be about. However, going into the rest of the year, as I grow a more accredited understanding of blogging and book reviewing, I hope to write more articles on those looking to become avid book reviewers or book bloggers.
This month was filled with thrillers and a lot of great ones at that. And whilst I don’t expect my love of thrillers to die down anytime soon, I’ll tell you now, I have picked up a couple of fantasy novels and an action thriller that has taken me off the thriller hype just for a few weeks – I don’t want to get burned out! ANyway, this will likely mean you’ll see a slightly more diverse selection of novels this month!
